Headcount

[turbedon]

[A far too cheerful sounding voice pipes up over the Network, the owner of it nowhere to be found in Liminal Space in a rather telling way.]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking-

Everyone okay? Anyone gone missing after the last Jaunt?

... Any newcomers we need to get off the brainway asap? Because just arriving and then being run over would really not be astrous. At all.

Comments

[howexciting]

But it was not used as a destructive force--

[He cuts himself off before he gets too far, though he desperately wants to yell some more.]

Water. Sins and Virtues. Gold beyond measure. Land and titles. And just because Peregrines no longer need it to sustain themselves does not mean it is done away with entirely.

There was already going to be a war if I did not remove the Name from Melasurei. The Angels and Demons were going to spill innocent blood on the streets, and if I had not done anything the Demons would have obtained it. Riots might just cause some actual useful change now that the Peregrines have a solid form like the Immortali.

At least they have a chance to find it, now, instead of fading into obscurity! They don't require the blood and ichor of abusive monsters in order to survive anymore! They have a chance to find their memories, their names, new allegiances, a new life for themselves! They're free now to live the lives that they want to live instead of lives they're forced to endure until they fade into nothing, and you're worrying about the status quo?!

[He's seething with rage, now, but he stays quiet for a long moment to contain himself. When he replies next, his words are far quieter, a thin veil of calm metering the undercurrent of anger that clips every word.]

... new Peregrines will not be appearing. I saw to that.

[leftbehindagain]

And on one level, that's never going to matter. I can appreciate that you made the best choice you could in a bad situation, but I doubt I'll ever be able to accept the means by which you did it.

I'm worried about whether there's still a city there at all for them to find their way in, not to mention whatever retributions might be leveled at it for the thing being used at all. I'm worried about whether they'll ever be able to get away from their abusers, since that's no easy task itself, and whether they have the tools they need to function outside of those relationships without getting sucked right back into another of the same. I'm worried about the major upheaval you forced on everyone rather than allowing them a more gradual change. The question isn't whether the status quo was acceptable, but how to best disrupt it.

[Calm your breeches, Leonardo-sensei. You're angrier than the guy who's upset about your choice.]

How can you be so sure? There are always going to be people in that world who don't quite fall to one side or the other when they die. What is it you think is going to happen to them instead?